Shadowhand previously was very hands off the dungeon. After he made the maze and his inner sanctum he focused on robbing the local resources with expendable slaves. When we discovered the cave goblins he no longer had an out flow of money, he could sit back and let the dungeon keep them pliable minions. Yet when the goblin-orc war broke out that costless system took a hit. At his core Derrick was a greedy thief, having anything not being part of his grand machine of raking in money had to be carefully over watched.
The goblins attacking the orcs and getting their collective asses kicked wasn't in itself a bad thing, Shadowhand had been noticing a drastic rise in the goblin population, more goblins risked eventually creating a goblin lord and the whole ants nest bursting out of the tunnel to attack everything in the area, were such to happen his cost little operation would be exposed and hus own neck would be exposed to the crowns rather swift... justice.
Thus thugs began making routine inspections of the tribe. This was cramping my thoughts of swiftly reproducing the goblins and siccing them on those valuable orcs. Seriously Shadowhand I'm trying to help you, stop making my dungeon life harder alright? I mean thanks for bringing in such wealth, for whatever reason wealth inside my halls equates to warm fuzzy feelings in my stomach... well, whatever passes for that organ at any rate, so naturally I want more! More goblins means I can get orcs, which will get bigger stronger miners for you, see where I'm going with this? Course not, you can't hear me.
Well send your people to maintain the population, I've stored my Mother of Monsters goblins further in where your guys fear to tread. I'm investing alot of energy and carefully feeding the excess females back into the main tribe, once my personal gang is ready I will have those orcs! Well, you'll have them too I suppose. We both win, am I not the best dungeon? Of course I am. Now let's see, thanks to that connecting tunnel what else is down there? Maybe some friends for the goblins?
Empty corridor... bottomless shaft.... underground river... hrm. Where's all the monsters? Far from surface eyes should be a thriving subterranean ecosystem right? Why do I see a whole lot of nothing? I mean the river has some fish but aquatic beasts don't really suit my theme you know what I'm saying? I mean its not like my halls are full of water... hrm... I wonder. Lets see can I create water in one of the deeper halls? Hrm, concentrate Shadowheart, whose the dungeon? You're the dungeon! You can do anything... sort of.
Hrg... harg.... urhhh... Blarg.
~ CRACK ~
I did it! Wait.... stop... no wait I command thee dry!!! Oh come on I cracked the wall all the way to the river and now its diverting into my dungeon... but its not stopping... Oh fuck my life. One of Shadowhand's patrols has found the flooded passage. One of the guys is staying behind to watch the water slowly creep up while the other runs back to the boss. The man on watch is eying the murky submerged corridor warily. Why's he so afraid of a bit of water?
My question was answered a minute later when a monstrous water snake leapt from the dark water and sank its fangs into the man's calf. Ouch, bet that hurt. Ew, poisonous to boot. The man's leg is turning a weird shade of puce, who knew there was a shade of puce am I right? Well down he went, the snake seems to be drinking his blood....
{ Jack Lefty, level one pickpocket has died in dungeon Shadowheart. Gained two hundred and fifty energy. }
{ A ghoul has been created inside dungeon Shadowheart. }
Wait... a what now? Focusing on the dead man his flesh seems to dry out taking on a rather disturbing greenish blue hue. Hunched over like an animal the man turned ghoul follows the snake into the water. Okay... that was fucked up. A living snake made an undead monster? Lets see, focus on that snake, show me your secrets...
[
Name: Vampiric Water Snake
Level: Two
Habitat: Underwater Graveyards
Diet: Blood
Special Abilities: Ghoul Bite, Level ten Toxic Bite
]
Oh. Oh my.
I DIDN'T DO IT!
Okay... okay... calm down Shadowheart, this is a good thing right? More monsters was the goal. We now have goblins, soon orcs and now a snake that makes ghouls when it sucks a victims blood. Shadowhand will surely appreciate that he has extra security here now.
He wasn't. He was even less impressed when the water ghoul dragged one of his men into the water to feast. Shadowhand immediately expended some energy to seal the two sides of the passage behind thick stone doors to restrict the still progressing flooding. While he couldn't see inside, I could. The snake took up residence in the corridor, oddly enough it seems to have some sort of intelligence as the ghouls were directed to make the crack wider. Uh oh. I think I might gave invited the burglar into the house. Well those doors will keep it contained right? Sure some water is leaking around the edges but it won't bust down the door right? Right?
Damn it.
Whelp no sense crying over ruptured hallways infested with an undead scourge. Back to goblin breeding! I still have to get those orcs. This plan can't fail. Well, I hope it won't. I mean it should be fine, the goblins will out number the orcs this time and should be able to capture the females I need. I just need time. Sorry master Shadowhand, I'm sure that headache is related in some fashion to your smooth operation burning faster than a dragon in a match warehouse but have no fear! Your dungeon will provide you with a completely submissive fighting force, you won't even miss those guys that inadvertently got killed in the process.
Leave it to me.
.
.
.
Okay, I really wasn't expecting this. Slowly I built up my goblin minions ever so careful of Shadowhand's watchful minions. It was time for another goblin-orc war, I enticed the fighting force on down into the large cavern owned by the Sharptusks. The goblins were doing well, the remaining orc warriors were fewer in number... well until their females joined in. Seems orcs are a matriarchal society and orc females tend to be bigger and stronger than orc males, probably should have realized this as Gretna was big and bossy herself even only being half orc. Ah well we live and learn, I just need more goblins. Well, that's what I thought anyways.
When I shifted my attention back to my secret little breeder pit I might have over looked something. Well not all the gobbos had died. I swear I thought all of them were pig man food! How could I know my half dead goblin boys would become breeding stock? I mean female orcs are bigger than make orcs and they're already six feet tall and built like a brick outhouse. Why the hell would they jump those albino little shits, and half dead albino little shits at that! System neglected to mention orc-goblin pregnancies were rather fast and unique.
Likely why the Sharptusks were bullying the Pale Eyes. We up and robbed their sex slaves. Explains why the orcs were especially pissy. Okay lesson learned and driven home when the orcs invaded again. In my core I could see Shadowhand clutching his head and swearing so many unique curses even his relaxation companion was blushing furiously. Once again Shadowhand mobilized his troops to intercept the orcs but didn't quite arrive in time, in fact the Pale Eyes were running everywhere through his maze looking to hide behind the big boss when the orcs burst into the dungeon.
This itself wouldn't be a completely bad thing... until the orcs found one of the sealed doors and laid siege to it. System if you can hear me, I would like to state for the record that this is NOT my fault. The blame lies squarely on that scummy tutorial not teaching me everything I should know ahead of me getting into messes like these. Things were going down hill fast. The goblins were panicking throughout the maze, Shadowhand was fighting through them to get at the orcs, but it was clear he now wanted to exterminate all the goblins as he killed any he found. As for the orcs, they were sure they found the "door" to a treasury or the main part of the dungeon and were using their weapons to chip at the door. At this rate the flooded hall would soon be breached and the ghouls would attack anyone.
My dungeon is under attack. Death messages and energy refund/gain messages block my sight. With a crash and roar the stone door is breached. Dark water, ghouls and the vampiric water snake are dumped back into my halls. Shadowhand seeing the snake and ghouls begins a retreat as the undead pair set themselves on orc and goblin alike. The ghoul chowing down on a goblin looks like he bit into dung, guess goblins are not a recommended food source. Eh, they make better diggers. The number of ghouls is rising as the water begins claiming the higher halls of the dungeon.
Packs of ghouls are now hunting the stragglers of the Pale Eye tribe. The Sharptusks are mirroring Shadowhand and carefully retreating. The water snake found the core room and quickly claimed the center for itself. Hey get off my core you stupid serpent! My core is NOT a warming rock. Sigh. Fine. Stay there. Looking through the dungeon and death messages my energy reserves finally crested a thousand, I could finally give a new dungeon master a proper introduction! Wait... Shadowhand is not dead yet...
Oh my. Some time has passed, I remain flooded, I guess this is what bloating feels like. Ghouls rather than goblins roam the halls. Half of which are flooded badly. Shadowhand has tried reclaiming me but the ghouls are vastly stronger than his thugs, he has only succeeded in inflating the number of bites dead roaming inside me. The snake is still coiled around my core, it doesn't seem intent on leaving, worse still two more of the snakes swam in some time ago. While the ghouls ignore the new snakes, these newer tenants are ambushing what few Mother of Monsters goblins I try to rebuild.
They even took up residence around the slime-goblins. I didn't think it possible but they can interact with the Mother of Monsters. How they knew they could I have no idea, they just slither atop the slime and more poor gobbos pop out. The snakes let them nature a bit before biting and converting so now there's a gang of child sized goblin ghouls infesting me... can things get any worse?
Of course they can.
I don't know how much time has passed but the number of ghouls has grown obscenely. The newer batches are being shoved outside my halls. I can only assume that they're being forced to hunt the hamlet and villages. At the rate they spawn and are being pushed out it'll be like a dark tide washing over the area. In some sick sense I guess I'm a success as a dungeon... I mean my dungeon master was driven out and now I'm being run by a trio of snakes but isn't an unleashed horde of bitey dead things just what a dungeon should do?
I just wish the action was inside me. I can't see outside, even focusing on detecting the hamlet and villages would just give me numerical data... that's not fun to watch. I mean I tried it at one point and the ghoul numbers were rising as one of the villages numbers plummeted but that was hardly riveting entertainment. I could just cheer on the rising ghoul counts and imagine hapless peons being torn open by undead...